My Healer Academia (Bakugo x OC x Todoroki)

[S2] That's the Idea, Ochaco

               School had been postponed for a brief period after the incident at USJ. Ever since her reunion with Bakugo, Ai had decided to get back in contact with her aunt. She terminated her apartment lease early and had been living with Recovery Girl from then on. Even so, it was hard to get accustomed with normal living circumstances again.

               It was the night before classes were about to start. Ai laid in bed, eyes closed but unable to relax. A bead of sweat manifested against the side of her head despite how cold the room was. Her breathing was shaking as she unconsciously gripped the sides of her comforter. No matter how hard she tried, the memories always came back to haunt her in the exact same order. The hand. The multiplying. The feeling of drowning in air.

               She screamed.

               Light flooded the room and Ai shot up from her laying position, panting and disoriented. She was visibly shaking as she faced the open door to her bedroom, tears cascading down her pale cheeks. Chiyo was silent as she made her way to her niece, pausing halfway with wide eyes at the spectacle before her.

               "Auntie," Ai whimpered. She glanced down at her trembling hands before looking back up.

               It was only momentarily, but the effects were evident. Every time she would close her eyes and try to sleep, every time the nightmare recurred in her brain – her quirk would involuntarily activate in repetition to the trauma she had experienced.

               Her skin would turn gray.

               Her cells would die, only to immediately regenerate.

               Her body would feel light, but her heart heavy.

               "What's wrong with me?"

               Class felt normal, and despite what had happened, her fellow classmates left Ai alone as she sat quietly at her desk, understanding that a crowd was the last thing a girl needed after fighting off death. Bakugo reverted to his short-tempered extroversion, and the night of their spontaneous intimacy seemed like a distant memory. Midoriya was back to his normal self as well, albeit deeper in thought than he usually was, for now his worries transferred from the potential loss of his best friend to the potential he needed to unlock of his own quirk before it was too late.

               Everyone was thrown off from their chatter when the entrance slid open. Aizawa-sensei?! A majority of his face was bandaged, and he had a limp, but his arms seemed to have healed significantly from the attack. They were the main injuries that Ai was able to focus on before she had dashed off. She wanted to run up and heal her teacher further, but the thought made her flinch.

               "Try to refrain from using your quirk unless necessary," Chiyo had warned her. "Not only will your cells destroy you, but this may pose a danger to others as well."

               "My well-being doesn't matter," Aizawa said to the class. His voice was muffled by the gauze, but no one dared to speak over him. "More importantly, the fight is not yet over." The statement put his students on edge, but his following words turned the tense atmosphere from anxiety to excitement. "The UA sports festival is drawing near."

               Midoriya had been called to see All Might for lunch, and although Ai would normally eat with him, Iida and Uraraka, with the absence of her best friend on top of her loss of appetite, Ai didn't feel like joining anyone in the cafeteria. With Aizawa's approval, she stayed at her desk during lunch, glancing sideways outside of the window as she laid her head on her crossed arms.